Help! 120 on my enlarger

The enlarger I use can physically take upto a 120 film (i.e the sliders move out far enough to accommodate the negative), and when the light is shone through the neg, the neg appears fine on the board/paper EXCEPT what I can only describe as 'light vignetting'. Not enough light is getting to the 4 corners, so when it comes to developing, those bits are white still(exactly same 'look' as vignetting, but white!).

Is this just a limitation of the enlarger, or am I missing something? Even if I make the enlargement as small as it will go, it still has this effect, but not as bad. 35mm is fine, it's just 120 square images that are affected. Does it need a different lens for 120?

This is the enlarger, excuse the rubbish cam phone pic (can't remember the brand of enlarger, it's the one on the left):

The enlarger on the left seems to be a Meopta Opemus-5. I used one for years and the condenser head is the same for 35mm or 120 roll. If I am wrong and the enlarger is a Meopta Axomat, then it would only do 35mm though.

The problem you are seeing is probably because you are using a 50mm lens with the 120 film. Find yourself a 75mm or 80mm lens and it should work fine.

The enlarger on the left seems to be a Meopta Opemus-5. I used one for years and the condenser head is the same for 35mm or 120 roll. If I am wrong and the enlarger is a Meopta Axomat, then it would only do 35mm though.

The problem you are seeing is probably because you are using a 50mm lens with the 120 film. Find yourself a 75mm or 80mm lens and it should work fine.

Great, cheers Martin. I think it is a Opemus-5, so I just need to track down an 80mm lens. Had a quick look on ebay and they are £65..ouch. Might double check through all the draws in the darkroom first!

The enlarger on the right is a Philips PCS130. This is a condenser enlarger, and it requires MF condensers for proper coverage of an MF negative. Check the Yahoo Tri-One group for manuals, if you don't have one. (I could e-mail you the manuals, if you don't want to sign up to the group.) For 6x6 negatives, you need the F135 condenser on top and the F145 on bottom.

If you've already got an MF condenser set for the Philips, you'll probably need a 75mm or longer lens for proper MF coverage, too, but some wider lenses are more capable of covering an MF frame than others. £65 for an 80mm lens sounds excessive -- although prices do vary regionally, and I'm more familiar with prices in the USA. Of course, enlarger lenses are light enough that international shipping shouldn't break the bank, if UK asking prices are too far out of line....

Sixty-five pound for a new lens would be a crappy cheap four-element job. Witha a bit of luck, you can pick up a secondhand six-element lens for less money. If you get really stuck I can e-mail you links to an ebay site with cheap-and-cheerful, and reliable, ex-soviet gear where you can find a reasonable lens (certainly not great though) for about twenty quid or less. Also look in local secondhand websites, or a find a camera-fair. Unfortunately, here in Holland, a lot of darkroom gear ends up as landfill so the UK is probably the same . . .

I've saved two Meopta enlargers from being landfill so far, at the point of entry Both now reside in Ireland used at Fintan & Thefizz's workshops. However the £160+ Schneider Componon S lens has been put to use in my own darkroom.

Put a wanted advert here on APUG, you'd have to subscribe first but you'd save far more than the subscription

Alternately see if a local pro-Lab still has any turrets full of lens lying about, the old roll-head printers (Durst etc) used a rotating turret to change the lens to enlarge to different print sizes. I was given two about 4 or 5 years ago and ended up with a dozen or so Durst Componon & Componon S lenses unfortunately I've given the spares away via APUG for free already